First gig with Mark V!

I've been dying to play my Mark V out live, but my band has a couple guys on vacation, so when my old band called and asked me to fill in for one of their new guitarist... I jumped on the chance!

Let me start by saying that if you set your tone at home, in your bedroom.... Even if you turn it up and jam at "gig level", take all that and throw it out the window when you actually take it to a gig :?

What sounded too bright at home, was too dark with the band. Channel one, my clean channel, took the most tweaking.. At home, I liked the Tweed first, but it was too bright so I went to "clean" with the gain turned up 3/4 the way up for some grit.... But the 4th song tonight, I was back in tweed mode.

Channels 2 and 3 just took a bump of the GEQ (last two faders) and they were good.

I did a little more knob turning to get my tone dialed in throughout the night... I can't wait to play it with MY band so I can actually concentrate on the amp instead of more worried what chord comes next.

Playing at home and getting used to the settings is nothing like actually putting it on stage with a band....It'll get you close, but you'll be doing some tweaking at your next gig :wink:

Over-all, I LOVED this amp! I can see me hanging on to this amp for a while (until the Mark 6 comes out).

That's great! I agree though at home settings rarely translate to gig settings!

Im dying to unleash my V at a gig soon myself and yes i agree that dialing in settings at home never usually translates.Ive only been doing some recording with my one so far.I have come up with a tactic for checking if the tone is dialed in right for a band context,although ive yet to try it(havent jammed with the band yet) but its worth a shot and id be interested to hear the results if someone else can try it before im back jamming.Basically as we all know,guitars are mid range instruments and need to fit in between the bass and vocals/cymbals etc.So the best way to dial it in is with bass,drums,vocals etc already there.If you can get your hands on some recording software or already own some,load up a drum loop(from a drum library) get the bass player to put down a few bars of a riff over it and the vocalist to something over it.Doesnt have to be high quality by any means.Once its all there,mic up your amp with a sm57(90% of the time these will be used) and put the mic in a sensible position like where the dust cap meets the speaker(not too bright or dark).Dial the amp in and play a few bars.Now listen back in context with the drums bass etc playing and hear how it sounds.Make a few adjustments if needed.Thing is though you should leave mic where it is(thats why a sensible position is good to start with,although you may have to move it a small amount).If you get it dialed in and sitting well in context,mark the position on the speaker and place the mic there for the gig and remember the amp settings.I gigged for years with the same amp settings/mic position and it worked for every venue.Because the amp is close miked the only thing that needs to change is perhaps the settings on the foh desk,depending on the room its in.

Some things that impact MKV tone (bedroom to studio to rehearsal to live situations)...
1. 6L6 switch to EL-34's or variations (KT-77, etc.)
2. Type of cabinet, speakers, open to tuned/ported to closed back cab...
3. Speakers being used in the cab(s)
4. Guitar(s) being used, single coils to buckers, active or passive
5. Settings, EQ, use of graphic,
6. power settings: 10-45-90
Recently a recording/live engineer came over to help tweak the V & we did a few things to get my ears "tuned":
- He made me actually get my ear down at speaker cab level to HEAR what a mike would pick up. His statement was: "if it sounds the least bit harsh or weird, why hope that the sound guy can get rid of the harshness at the mixing board"?
- We tried various tone settings, speaker cabs, cables ,to select the ones best suited for recording & live use.
- We both agreed that it's TOTALLY subjective from one musician to another.
- Getting tolerable sounds at reasonable levels only got better (more sustain, bigger tones, improved dimensionality) when we started to "move some air" (crank the amp a bit more).
- Revisting this amp periodically to find subtleties & variations: the V can touch so many sounds you can spend hours finding what you want; or read the manual and just go for it.

tele_jas said:

Let me start by saying that if you set your tone at home, in your bedroom.... Even if you turn it up and jam at "gig level", take all that and throw it out the window when you actually take it to a gig :?

Click to expand...

Huh...I must be the odd man out.
99.9% of the time, I go from home to rehearsal
to gig with the same settings. I just goose the
master volume to taste and I'm good. During
gigs, I'll typically just ride the guitar knobs if
I'm coming in too bright or too bassy. I admit
to dialing back (or forward) the gain and treble
between a strat and LP but typically our gigs
are 30-50 minutes and I end up sticking with
the same guitar I started with. Plus, the gigs
are too short to be messing with amp knobs
when my focus is getting the crowd to buy
beer, CDs, and t-shirts

jb's 52 said:

tele_jas said:

Let me start by saying that if you set your tone at home, in your bedroom.... Even if you turn it up and jam at "gig level", take all that and throw it out the window when you actually take it to a gig :?

Click to expand...

Huh...I must be the odd man out.
99.9% of the time, I go from home to rehearsal
to gig with the same settings. I just goose the
master volume to taste and I'm good. During
gigs, I'll typically just ride the guitar knobs if
I'm coming in too bright or too bassy. I admit
to dialing back (or forward) the gain and treble
between a strat and LP but typically our gigs
are 30-50 minutes and I end up sticking with
the same guitar I started with. Plus, the gigs
are too short to be messing with amp knobs
when my focus is getting the crowd to buy
beer, CDs, and t-shirts

Click to expand...

You're not odd man out at all.
Except for a slight tweak between guitars with singles or buckers:
pushing more air & the wonderful synergy of tubes/speakers being leaned
on is sometimes all it takes.

I'm normally in the first camp... I almost always have to make some fairly hefty adjustments between bedroom practicing levels and gig scenarios.

jb's 52 said:

tele_jas said:

Let me start by saying that if you set your tone at home, in your bedroom.... Even if you turn it up and jam at "gig level", take all that and throw it out the window when you actually take it to a gig :?

Click to expand...

Huh...I must be the odd man out.
99.9% of the time, I go from home to rehearsal
to gig with the same settings. I just goose the
master volume to taste and I'm good. During
gigs, I'll typically just ride the guitar knobs if
I'm coming in too bright or too bassy. I admit
to dialing back (or forward) the gain and treble
between a strat and LP but typically our gigs
are 30-50 minutes and I end up sticking with
the same guitar I started with. Plus, the gigs
are too short to be messing with amp knobs
when my focus is getting the crowd to buy
beer, CDs, and t-shirts

Click to expand...

Same here. I've owned a Mark V since it's release and I do not agree with the need to radically change your settings from home to gig. What usually requires more tweaking are my time based effects from home to gig as impacted by the size and dynamics of the room. On the amp it's a minor tweak of the gain (sometimes) -- but usually it's just boost up the Master.

I'm putting in a quote from one of the posts about one of my outdoor jobs (gigs)" I had my volumes set for each channel so I could breeze from channel to channel with good tone at an acceptable level actually pretty low for my taste. I had the Master set to half 12 O'clock with the channels 2&3 below 9am and the clean set for crystal clean, no breakup and matching the level of the other two channels (remember it was an outdoor job). Half way through the first set the drummer asked me to turn up a little. So instead of bumping up each channel like I usually do I went to the master and bumped it a little. This turned out to be a much better choice. The amp just sounded better." Bumping the main just opened things up. It sounded like the amp was more sensitive to my guitar and the attack of the pick.

My studio levels are quite low (wimpy) compared to working levels but the tone stays the same. Rarely do I ever need to adjust anything but levels. Adjusting the main volume for me, brought out all the cool harmonics and gave the volume pot on the guitar more dynamics and it was less touchy to dial in the amount of gain I wanted.

One thing about working in bands, low end is not your friend, it's your bass players job.

OldTelecasterMan said:

Bumping the main just opened things up. It sounded like the amp was more sensitive to my guitar and the attack of the pick.

Click to expand...

Yeah...it's almost scary especially when I'm really digging into my strings.
It's more apparent on Ch1 for me. The plus side of this is that the control
is now in your hands and guitar tone/volume controls. So I never feel the
need to go back to the amp and tweak.

Yes.. years ago I was on the "Dark Side" (all digital, solid state amps) then I got my first Boogie. It was a DC5 with a 4x12 and it has been all tubes since. No more doing the dance on a pedal board. Get a good tone on the amp and it's ridding the volume and tone control all night long. It's not a bad second job. I wish it was my only job. I had jobs in house bands a few times. Yes the money is nice but the bast part is you get really freakin good. Rehearse 3 nights a week in the bar and work 3 nights a week. No tear down, setup, no practice just learn new material.

Ah... glory days... back when there was lots of work for musicians.

jb's 52 said:

OldTelecasterMan said:

Bumping the main just opened things up. It sounded like the amp was more sensitive to my guitar and the attack of the pick.

Click to expand...

Yeah...it's almost scary especially when I'm really digging into my strings.
It's more apparent on Ch1 for me. The plus side of this is that the control
is now in your hands and guitar tone/volume controls. So I never feel the
need to go back to the amp and tweak.

Click to expand...

+1